Monday, 23 April 2012

Yes, 2012 looks like being a great year, certainly in terms of new Clint Eastwood publications.

Just this morning I had The Ethical Vision of Clint Eastwood (by Sara Anson Vaux) arrive in the post. This looks like being an absolutely fabulous read. Vaux is director of the Office of Fellowships at North western University, where she also teaches film in the religious studies department. Vaux is not only a fan, but an insightful commentator on his work. This generous 259 page book covers over forty years of Eastwood’s creative cinematic work. From iconic Spaghetti Western hero, Pacific War movies, to recent highly acclaimed productions such as Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and Gran Torino. Sara Anson Vaux provides a fresh and thought provoking perspective on Eastwood’s celebrated journey and his ethical vision.

The Ethical Vision of Clint Eastwood is available now. I certainly look forward to reviewing this highly original examination of Eastwood’s work and posting it here. For those who I know will be eager to add this immediately to their collection, full details and link to the publishers website are listed below. I would also like to take this opportunity of thanking the wonderful publicist Ingrid Wolf for her support. Ingrid has been a real joy to work with and her genuine enthusiasm for this book is thoroughly infectious.

On the subject of books, earlier today I had an email arrive from Author/Journalist, Michael R. Goldman. Michael is author of the forthcoming book, Clint Eastwood, Master Filmmaker at Work. With a foreword by Director Steven Spielberg and a preface provided by Actor Morgan Freeman, the book promises to be exquisitely detailed. This fully authorized volume offers a revealing in-depth exploration of Eastwood’s influential filmmaking methods, comprehensively illustrated with unit photography, key art, production design sketches, and film frames. Covering all of Eastwood’s 32 films, including The Outlaw Josey Wales, Unforgiven, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and Letters from Iwo Jima, the book is a full-career retrospective. To portray the maverick behind the camera, Michael interviewed Eastwood; his long-time crew of award-winning cinematographers, editors, and production designers; and many celebrated actors, including Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gene Hackman, Sean Penn, Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, and Forest Whitaker.

Michael is a veteran entertainment journalist who has been an editor at Daily Variety, senior editor at Millimeter magazine, and a contributor to American Cinematographer (Check out his super feature on J. Edgarhere). He has written four books and countless articles about filmmaking.

During our discussion today, Michael explained how ‘it was a two-year-plus project’ and that he is extremely happy with the result. Michael continued, ‘our project is rather unique in that Clint and his entire team at Malpaso fully participated, had me on set to watch him work on 'Hereafter' and 'J Edgar' and opened the door to chat with many luminaries who have worked with him over the years. I had for instance the final interview ever done with the late great Mr Surtees last July. We cover the various stages of filmmaking and Clint’s philosophies on those stages and stories/anecdotes about how it was executed over the years. It’s an inside look at his craft, not a critical analysis. We’re very excited about it.’

Michael will be sending the archive a copy of this book (which I can’t wait to review). The 240 page (hardback) book is priced at $40.00 and contains 300 colour illustrations. It is released worldwide on October 1st and is now in presales at major book seller sites (and cheaper on amazon for those who purchase it before its October debut) across the web.

Click here for the amazon sales link
Click here for the Publisher’s page